Now that the commands and system variables associated with the SSM are known, let’s take a look at the components of it.  The Sheet Set Manager is formatted as a palette and functions the same as one.  You can dock, anchor, auto-hide, adjust transparency, and the size of it as needed.

The SSM consists of three tabs-Sheet List, Sheet Views, and Model Views.  The Sheet List tab displays an ordered list of sheets.  This list can be manipulated into different orders, subsets can be created for documents divided by their department, and many property and publish options can be executed from this tab.  The Sheet Views tab displays a list of views used in the current sheet set that is open and can be organized into categories, but can only do this for sheet views created in AutoCAD 2005 or later.  The Model Views tab pertains to the folders, files, and model space views incorporated into the current sheet set.  You can add and remove these folders and files to control what files are associated with the current sheet set.

Let’s move forward by exploring the buttons and pull-downs of the Sheet List tab of the SSM.  In the image below, you will see these features in a little more detail.

I have numbered the different buttons in order to better communicate the specific feature I’m talking about.  Number “1” in the image represents the drop-down menu which allows you to select the current sheet set, open an existing sheet set, choose a recently used sheet set, create a new sheet set, or close the current sheet set (done by right-clicking the current sheet set in the drop-down).

The button labeled “2” publishes the current sheet set to DWF.  Using this button to create a DWF file of your sheet set, AutoCAD will use the settings defined in the publish options dialog of the sheet set manager.  We will delve deeper into that shortly.  When you select this button, you will be prompted to create a file name and location for the DWF.  Beyond that, AutoCAD will begin making your plots.

The button labeled “3” will result in a short-cut menu for publishing options when pressed.  The next image displays the short cut menu and gives you the opportunity to see all possibilities within it. This short-cut menu is identical to a short-cut sub-menu within the sheet list.  That will be described in more detail as the exercise progresses.

The button label “4” represents the sheet selections and allows you to create, name, and manage a set of sheets.

Now, beyond the drop-down and buttons on the Sheet List tab, there are short cut menus within the sheet set.  Below, you will see the short cut menu that displays when you right-click on the heading of the sheet set.  You will also notice that I scrolled down to the “Publish” option in the menu to highlight the sub-menu for it.  As I said before, this sub-menu is identical to the short cut available on the “Publish” button on the top of the palette (labeled “3”).  You can save yourself a couple of keystrokes/clicks if you use the button at the top.  This is a good place to stop on the Sheet List tab until getting more detailed about SSM.

The other two tabs, Sheet Views and Model Views, are very helpful features in the Sheet Set Manager.  These tabs make it possible to utilize information from other drawings to do things such as create callout blocks referencing a detail or a drawing in another file.  I may cover more detail about these subjects in a future post, but if you are anxious to find out more, I would suggest looking at Heidi Hewitt’s lesson about them here.

The first step in working with sheet sets is creating one.  The following exercise will walk you through the steps one by one.  Either open up the Sheet Set Manager by typing SHEETSET at the command line or entering Ctrl+4 and selecting “New Sheet Set…” from the drop down menu as shown below or simply enter the command NEWSHEETSET.

From here you select “Existing drawings” (If you are setting up this set without a project created or sheets to populate within it, you can choose to omit adding sheets when finished).  Select “Next >” in order to progress to the “Sheet Set Details” page.

Define the name of the new sheet set, give a description if needed, and choose a location for the .dst file to be stored.  For these items I like to use the project number and client name for the name of the sheet set and then describe the type of project it is under the description area.  Also, when I choose the location of my .dst file, I put it with my project drawings so that when the project is archived, the .dst file isn’t sitting in a folder without any drawings associated with it.  When you are done, select “Sheet Set Properties” if you are going to define any advanced options within the sheet set.  You can find examples of this in one of my previous posts covering AutoCAD Fields here.  Pick “Next>” when you’re finished.

At this point, you can add existing sheets to the set by “Browse…” or just “Next >” to continue without adding.  When you add layouts, you can add any layout tab from any project folder-it is just a matter of browsing for every file you want included in the set.  It is also possible to pick and choose only the layouts desired, leaving out the unwanted ones.  Also, you can choose structure and naming changes in “Import Options…”

AutoCAD will now give you the opportunity to review and confirm you work before picking “Finish”.

If you didn’t add sheets to the set as you created it or if you want to add more layouts, just right-click the project name and select “Import layout as sheet…” and follow the prompts.

Now that you have a sheet set created and it looks something like the picture below, you can begin reorganizing the layouts if needed.

You can do this by simply dragging and dropping the sheets into the correct location, or Shift/Ctrl selecting and moving groups of sheets at a time.  See that in action on the next image.  Also notice the the sheet properties display when you hover over them.  This can be useful in many situations.

Another way to edit the sheets in the SSM is to rename and renumber the sheets in your set.  Enter them manually by right-clicking the layout and picking “Rename and Renumber” from the short cut menu.  When you rename and renumber, work faster by pressing the Enter key or the “Next” button on the dialog when you are done to move on to the next sheet in the set.

One more thing that I want to discuss in this post is creating subsets for your sheet sets.  This is a great way to break projects up into work done by each department of your office or types of work being done.  You can create subsets by right-clicking on the project header and selecting “Create Subset” from the short cut menu.  From the Subset Properties dialog, name the subset and choose whether or not you will be using the same folder location and template file as the other sheet layouts and hit “OK”.

Now that the subset is created you can create or import new layouts into it or you can drag and drop existing layouts from the sheets set into the subset.  You can see from the image on the right that it is pretty simple to do and can be helpful in organizing your drawings further.

Okay, so now we know what the Sheet Set Manager is, what its components are, how to open and create a sheet set and subset, and how to organize the set the way we’d like.  What else is there?  Well, now that you have a sheet set loaded, you can double-click on any layout to open the drawing.  You can also Shift/Ctrl select multiple layouts to open them all at once.  You can also remove sheets, eTransmit a project or individual sheets in the project, publish, edit sheet properties, and so much more.  Join me for the rest of the month to discover what else the Sheet Set Manager has to offer.